For as much as I know, the 6d's ML is still in beta testing. Since it is still not in a stable form, it is more risky to get it than for instance the 550d's version, which in a stable and final form. I'm personally wanting for a stable version of the 6d's ML to get it, but if you are more adventurous than me, please post your opinion on it here!

For as much as I know, the 6d's ML is still in beta testing. Since it is still not in a stable form, it is more risky to get it than for instance the 550d's version, which in a stable and final form. I'm personally wanting for a stable version of the 6d's ML to get it, but if you are more adventurous than me, please post your opinion on it here!

It is alpha for the 5D3....and right now, if you put ML on it, it sets a boot flag in the camera firmware that cannot be unset by any means at this time.

I'm champing the bit to try it...especially for RAW video, but not gonna try it till it gets a bit more ready for "prime time".

Obviously no-one is going to guarantee anything with regard to ML. If loosing your camera would lose your livelihood, I'd not risk it.

However, the ML team reminds me a lot of the brilliant software engineers I have the pleasure of working with (I'm not one of them). They are very competent and always cautious.

I don't have a 6D, but the 7D version is stable and while I have occasionally had a broken feature, I often download lightly builds without any problems. Really, when I think about what they do it's quite remarkable. The fact is the whole ML software is well enough advanced that any version that gets put out there for people to install is (again JMO) very unlikely to cause any damage.

You should of course read all instructions and actually follow them. The number of people who can clearly not follow instructions is evident on the ML forum help pages. Even if you don't though, you are still unlikely to break/brick your camera. For instance, putting a card formatted with the 7D version in my 5DII has the effect of not letting the 5DII turn on - this is only because the 7D version (as with 6D and 5DII) is 'alpha' and not part of the unified build yet and I had the autoboot version on there. This is the worst moment I have had using ML and of course it was user error and no permanent damage done.

I'm thinking of getting started with using Magic Lantern on the 6D. Troubling part is that ML mentions on its website that the software may brick the camera.

You have to differentiate between "crash" and "brick". Here's my experience with ML after 2.5 years on 60d 3 month 6d:

* "crash" means that the camera freezes. This can happen esp. in early builds due to bugs in ML and is not something to be overly concerned about because you just have to take out the battery (or just open the battery door), re-insert it, done. This lack of stability means that you shouldn't use pre-final ML in production environments where reliability is paramount, for example shooting a wedding.

* "brick" means your camera doesn't react or start anymore, even with a card w/o ML on it. Since the general ML code base is rather mature by now and most of the devs are very concerned about stability, it is very unlikely that you will ever experience this even running the latest nightly ML - I would dare to say that actual hardware damage for example by too high digic/cmos temperature is nearly impossible by now.

The main reason why bricking happens is that ML writes values to the Canon nvram that are out of bounds, and in most cases you can un-brick your camera with a special debug ML that you just have to run to clear the Canon nvram. A 100% foolproof way is to use a C mode since no settings are written to the Canon nvram, that's what I do when I code for ML and try out new changes.

Bottom line: Get it if you want to experiment a bit, aren't concerned about the lack of documentation on the latest features but want to get a great enhancement or script/code what your camera does yourself (and I'm only (still) using Canon because of this). If you are rather conservative about features and automatisation, don't feel limited by the Canon fw or are very fearful about your €3000 camera, don't use it.

Last not least: Labels like "Alpha" mostly mean not dangerous, but that it's not feature-complete. The dev resources of ML are very limited (it's essentially 2 people who really know how to do it) and the number of supported cameras grows, so don't expect a final 5d3 or 6d in the near future, not to speak of a 70d version.

The main reason why bricking happens is that ML writes values to the Canon nvram that are out of bounds, and in most cases you can un-brick your camera with a special debug ML that you just have to run to clear the Canon nvram. A 100% foolproof way is to use a C mode since no settings are written to the Canon nvram, that's what I do when I code for ML and try out new changes..

Thanks ... I need to trouble you further though ... Can you please clarify how to run ML in the C-mode as you suggest above?

Thanks ... I need to trouble you further though ... Can you please clarify how to run ML in the C-mode as you suggest above?

Set the dial on your 6d to either C1 or C2 :-p ... in these modes, all changes you do yourself or through ML aren't preserved by the camera and you can only change them though the Canon fw (register C settings).

Thanks ... I need to trouble you further though ... Can you please clarify how to run ML in the C-mode as you suggest above?

Set the dial on your 6d to either C1 or C2 :-p ... in these modes, all changes you do yourself or through ML aren't preserved by the camera and you can only change them though the Canon fw (register C settings).

I actually don't know if you can remove the 6d bootflag because I don't intend to do it, there are no reports of Canon making any fuzz about it - this issue is blown out of proportion because it seems many people don't realize "uninstalling" ML is simply by formatting the sd/cf card as the camera then boots w/o ml (or simply press a button on startup).

There have been reports of the bootflag slowing down the startup time on a 5d3 either from powered down or from sleep.

Even after formatting the SD card - the delay persists.One workaround is basically just not letting the camera go into power saving mode (though it eats more battery power).

Not sure if this is an issue with the 6D or not.

Btw, Marsu42 I downloaded your fork of the magic lantern build because I really wanted the autoiso module. I had some problems getting it to compile (5d3) in windows at first but I think I worked them out. I should run through the small changes I had to make to get it to compile with you.

Now, I am still too chicken to install it because of the bootflag startup delay issue.But it is very tempting.